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TRUCKERS' STRIKES & PROTESTS * WORLDWIDE
* EUROPE - Portuguese truckers end strike as Spanish police clear roads
Madrid,Spain -AFP -13 June 2008: -- Spanish police cracked down on striking truckers, clearing blocked highways and arresting dozens, and Portuguese hauliers returned to work Thursday as chaos and shortages caused by the fuel protests began to ease... In a joint operation late Wednesday, Spanish and French police cleared an eight-kilometre (five-mile) line of trucks that had closed a highway border post by the western Spanish town of Biriatou since Sunday... Spanish officers had earlier moved in to clear a second border crossing to France, on a motorway at the northeastern town of Jonquera (Photo 1· Trucks pass through the northern Spanish village of Deba) ... Tens of thousands of truck drivers launched strikes in Spain and Portugal on Monday, demanding government help to cope with the rising price of fuel caused by rocketing oil prices, which last week reached almost 140 dollars a barrel... The protests paralysed roads, causing huge tailbacks, and left supermarkets bare of fresh produce and some petrol stations without supplies. They also forced Spanish auto plants to halt production as they ran out of spare parts, and Lisbon's airport to bar planes from refueling... 
The Spanish government on Wednesday adopted a tough line with the strikers, deploying 25,000 police to clear roads and ensure deliveries of essential goods... "The situation is normal on all roads," it said in a statement. It said 6,025 trucks carrying food, medicines and fuel were given police escorts in order to resupply shops and markets... In Portugal, truckers ended their strike after their union reached agreement with the government...
In Britain, negotiations were underway Thursday between the unions and management at two road haulage firms to avoid a threatened strike by around 500 drivers of oil trucks on Friday... The strike could affect about 10 percent of petrol stations across the country...
In the Netherlands, truckers Thursday blocked roads at 18 points throughout the country for about half an hour by driving at 50 kilometres per hour, provoking 100 kilometres of traffic jams, the country's automobile club, ANWB, said... (Photo 2 · Trucks block the A4 highway near Nieuw-Venne)
* Spain - Government urges striking truckers to get back to work
Madrid,Spain -AP/USA Today (USA) -12 June 2008: -- ... Warning Thursday that they have no chance of prevailing in a four-day-old stoppage that has prompted shortages and panic-buying of food and fuel... But two unions representing the strikers, who are protesting soaring fuel prices, stuck to their demand for the establishment of minimum rates for their haulage services... The government signed an agreement Wednesday night with non-striking unions who represent the vast majority of Spain's trucking industry. It calls for tax relief and other measures to cushion the effects of higher fuel prices. But the strikers, who are mainly self-employed drivers, refused to sign... "One cannot maintain a rigid position when it is causing so much harm," Development Minister Magdalena Alvarez told reporters at Parliament... The strikers' position, she said, "is not going anywhere."... (Photo by Manu Fernandez/AP - Spain is urging its truck drivers to return to work. The drivers have been blocking roads in protest of rising fuel prices. Here, drivers block the La Jonquera border in Spain with France on Tuesday)* South Korea - Major Disruption of Cargo Transport Feared
Seoul,S. Korea -Chosun - Jun.13,2008: -- A major cargo transportation crisis looms large, with the Korean Transport Workers' Union warning of a strike on Friday and the transport rate at Pyeongtaek and Dangjin ports falling to 43 percent of the normal rate... If the union goes on strike and obstructs transport by non-union truckers, the Korea International Trade Association estimates the disruption to transportation of imported and exported goods could cost up to US$1 billion per day... The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that as of noon on Thursday, a total of 4,528 cargo trucks -- 2,818 at major workplaces and 1,710 at ports -- were refusing to move cargo... In preparation for the KTWU general strike, the government has decided to temporarily put more cargo trains in service and operate more container ships between Busan and Incheon ports... The government said it will suspend fuel subsidies to striking cargo truckers, and arrest and bring criminal charges against unionized truckers who damage the tires of non-striking trucks or assault or menacingly obstruct non-union truckers from transporting cargo...
* South Korea - Thousands of truck drivers begin strike over rising fuel prices
Seoul,S. Korea -The Associated Press -June 13, 2008: -- Thousands of South Korean truck drivers launched a strike Friday to protest surging oil prices, threatening to paralyze the country's major seaports and cause severe losses to exporters... About 13,000 unionized truckers stopped work across South Korea, demanding the government increase fuel subsidies, help raise transportation charges and introduce a minimum wage, according to the Korean Cargo Workers' Union, which spearheaded the shutdown... The strike is the latest headache for President Lee Myung-bak, who has faced weeks of street demonstrations over his agreement to resume American beef imports...
* Argentine - Trucker Blockades Spark Food, Fuel Shortage
City Buenos Aires,CF,ARG -Bloomberg, by Eliana Raszewski & Matthew Craze -June 12, 2008: -- Argentine food stores and gas stations may run short of supplies today as truckers, blocking highways to protest business lost to a farm strike, shut down the nation's road transport system, industry officials said... Cargo truck drivers are stopping traffic on routes in the agricultural provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Cordoba and Entre Rios as they demand the government settle a three-month- old conflict with farmers that has cut shipping and reduced their income. Growers seeking to roll back a new export tax regime have refused to sell newly harvested soybeans and corn... Truckers are caught between the government's demand for a variable export tax on grains and oilseeds, unveiled by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on March 11, and farmers' refusal to ship products under the new regime. The resulting falloff in cargo has undermined the drivers' earnings. The teamsters are insisting the two sides somehow settle their differences... (Photographer: Diego Giudice/Bloomberg News - A farmer holds out his arm to halt a truck during a blockade in Pergamino, Argentina)*ASIA: Protest by raising pump prices last week, in: Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka ... and on Monday, Nepal, too.
London,UK -The London Evening Standard/WaccoBB, by Zeno Swijtink -13 June 2008: -- ...
* In Philippines - Hundreds of lorries and minibuses blocked roads in Manila leading to Malacanang Palace today to demand the lifting of a 12 per cent sales tax on fuel. Petrol prices there have risen about 24 per cent this year... Traffic ground to a halt as anti-riot police halted the convoy, including about 500 tuk-tuks, Manila's three-wheeled taxis...
* In Thailand - In the capital Bangkok, tens of thousands of heavy lorries are threatening to cause havoc while farmers are demonstrating and fishermen have begun burning their boats in nationwide protests against soaring prices of fuel and other essentials... Lorry drivers' leaders warned the government that it has until next Tuesday to subsidise their fuel or face at least 100,000 vehicles rumbling into Bangkok... A half-day strike yesterday by lorry drivers who parked their vehicles on roads across the country was only a prelude to next week's possible push into Bangkok, they said... Finance Minister Suraphong Suebwonglee said there were plans to help reduce transport costs...
* Malaysia - Meanwhile opposition groups in Malaysia today vowed to push on with mass protests against a 41 per cent hike in petrol prices - despite a pledge from the Prime Minister to keep prices fixed for the rest of the year... Malaysia is Asia's largest net oil exporter, earning £38 million a year in revenue for every 50 pence rise in crude prices. Protesters demanded to know why rising profits from oil exports were not being used as subsidies to the poor... A march is planned tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur to the Petronas Twin Towers, headquarters of oil giant Petronas... A million people are expected for another demonstration in the capital next month... Police have warned they will take action against protesters, with a permit required for any gatherings of more than four people...
... followed India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Sri Lanka by raising pump prices last week.... On Monday, Nepal became the latest Asian nation to rise prices to stem losses of a state firm...
Labels: truckers' strikes
posted by Unknown @ 8:35 AM
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